


The Duties of Grandmothers

by LadyKes



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, sansukh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 01:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3402689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKes/pseuds/LadyKes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Motherhood was immense and complex.  She really wanted to be a grandmother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Duties of Grandmothers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sansûkh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/855528) by [determamfidd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/determamfidd/pseuds/determamfidd). 



> This exists in the Sansukh universe (it's definitely a universe at this point) and won't make much sense if you haven't read Sansukh. All thanks go to Dets for letting us all play in her sandbox.

She had always wanted to be a grandmother. 

Of course, she’d wanted to be a mother too. She had wanted to cuddle her little ones, to feel the downy hairs on their chins change into slightly bristlier ones, to braid their first braids and teach them how to be dwarves. But motherhood was joy mixed with pain, immense and complex. She really wanted to be a grandmother. She wanted to know the softness of a baby chin again, this time mixed with the satisfaction of knowing her own children were experiencing that immense complexity. And of course she wanted to teach her grandbabies to stick out their tongues. She wanted to teach them in many little ways to look at the world and their parents and question it, as all children should do. She had been taught by her own grandmother to stick out her tongue and then had done it on many serious occasions. Her parents had not been fond of it, especially her father, but Aís had laughed and said it was the duty of a grandmother. And then, of course, Frís had taught Fíli and Kíli to stick out their tongues, though Kíli always took to it more than Fíli. Dís had suspected Frís would teach them, but she had still been startled the first time Kíli had done it. Frís had laughed even more than Aís had.

Dís wanted to laugh like that. 

But the world had taken her children away when they were too young. It had taken her husband, it had taken her brothers, and it had taken her beloved children. There would be no grandchildren of the line of Dís, no dandling a chubby little one on her knee and wondering whether the wee babe looked more like its father or its grandfather Víli or perhaps its great-uncle Thorin. There would be no teaching grandbabies to stick out their tongues in the hopes that they would do so at the most inopportune moment (and they nearly always did, to the teacher’s immense satisfaction).

Instead, she held precious little Gimizh on her knee and patiently stuck out her tongue once more. His parents had been startled that she had volunteered to look after him and had protested that there must far more important things she needed to do, far better ways for the Lady Dís to spend her busy day, but she had told them she truly wished to. She had not told them what she was teaching Gimizh. That would be a surprise for his parents, as usual. 

At first the wee red fuzzy one had just stared at her, but now he was beginning to learn. Now he was beginning to stick his tongue out in mimic of her own. Just at that moment, he stuck it all the way out for the first time, crossing his eyes to stare at it as if he wasn’t sure how he’d managed that, and she crowed with laughter.

“Very good,” she told the baby encouragingly. She tickled his little tummy until he grinned, showing eight tiny teeth. “We will teach you to stick out your tongue in the middle of a boring meeting yet.”

She stuck her tongue out just once more. She had always wanted to be a grandmother, but this would do.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written in partial tribute to my beloved grandmother, who died far too young but did indeed teach all the grandchildren to stick out their tongues.


End file.
